Thicknesse: Question on Pronunciation

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Tonks" <tonks_op at ...> wrote:
>
> > Geoff:
> > I think this is another of JKR's marvellous wordplays - in the Diagon 
> > Alley/Umbridge/Disillusion tradition.

> > I would see Pius Thicknesse = pious thickness which would give two 
> > syllables to his surname.
 
> > My dictionary gives a second meaning to "pious" which is "making a 
> > hypocritical display of virtue". It immediately made me think of 
> > Charles Dickens' Uriah Heep who was a singularly unpleasant 
> > character. Thickness(e) speaks for itself. :-)

> Carol:

> FWIW, although I immediately recognized the pun on "thickness," I
> pronounced it "thick NESS" because of the -"esse" suffix. I can think
> of only two English words ("largesse" and "politesse") containing that
> suffix, but the "e" in both is a short e, not a schwa, as in
> "thickness." At any rate, it's certainly two syllables, not three.

Geoff:
Two points.

"Largesse" and "politesse" are pronounced differently, the former having 
a soft `s' sound  and the latter hard.

I pronounce all these words with the same `e' sound.

> Tonks_op
> I thought of it as a way of putting down the Roman Catholic church and 
> the methods of government in the church. Pius being a name often 
> associated with one of the Popes.

Geoff:
Just for the record, there were twelve of them
.

The last was Pius XII who was Pope from 1939-58.